Oakland: Meals on Wheels van stolen

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The Bay Area Community Services van used for its Meals on Wheels program was reported as stolen on Monday, July 30, 2013. Mayor Jean Quan is interviewed in front of the van in this undated photograph. (BACS)

OAKLAND — A Meals on Wheels van that is used to deliver meals to at least 70 needy people every day was stolen Monday morning, and the organization needs a replacement vehicle immediately.

Sometime between 11:15 and 11:30 a.m. Monday, a driver stopped at a home in the 3800 block of Fruitvale Avenue in Oakland to deliver a hot lunchtime meal to a homebound senior. When the driver returned, the vehicle was gone, program manager Visakha Som said.

“We have an ongoing need for community support in terms of volunteers, donations and advocacy, and this (theft) just increases our immediate need because now we don’t have enough vehicles,” Som said.

The vehicle that was stolen usually delivers in downtown Oakland and the Lake Merritt area, but with the regular driver out sick on Monday, another driver took on extra homes in the Fruitvale district, Som said.

Dan Ashbrook, a spokesman for the organization, said people should be on the lookout for a white Ford Transit van with a yellow and blue Bay Area Community Services logo on the side. The license plate number is 8Y19407. The van has a label on the bottom corner of the right side with the number “1” on it.

Som said the theft hinders their ability to get more than 270 hot meals out every week.

“For many of these seniors, it is their only meal of the day,” she said.

Until the vehicle is found or replaced, the organization needs people to use their own cars or trucks to deliver meals. Additional volunteers are also always needed, Ashbrook said.

This isn’t the first time in recent months that the organization has been hit by crime, Last last year, seven Meals on Wheels trucks, parked in a parking lot off Oakland Avenue, each had one tire slashed, costing the organization about $2,000 to replace the tires, Som said.

Each weekday, roughly 750 adults 60 and older in Oakland and Piedmont receive hot, nutritious meals brought to their homes by drivers. To help, go to http://www.bayareacs.org/mow.html or call 510-986-8916, ext. 2203.